The James Ford Bell Library is a special collection of the

University of Minnesota Libraries The University of Minnesota Libraries is the library system of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, operating at 13 facilities in and around Minneapolis–Saint Paul. It has over 7 million volumes and 119,000 serial titles that are coll ...

located on the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

Minneapolis campus. It is named for its first donor and patron

James Ford Bell James Ford Bell as a member of the Food Administration in 1918. James Ford Bell (August 16, 1879 – May 7, 1961) was an American business leader and philanthropist who served as president of General Mills from 1928 to 1934 and chairman from 1934 ...

, founder of the

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The collection consists of some 40,000 rare books, maps, manuscripts, broadsides, pamphlets and other materials documenting the history and impact of international trade and cultural exchange in the pre-modern era, before ca. 1800. Its materials range in date from 400 CE to 1825 CE, with the bulk of the collection concentrated between the years 1450 and 1790, the early modern period. The library is known for its globe gores copy of the 1507 Waldseemuller world map, and it acquired a copy of the 1602 Impossible Black Tulip Chinese world map in 2009. The scope of the collection is global and more than 15 languages are represented. Elmer Andersen Library Minnesota 5

The library was founded at the

in 1953 and was located first in Walter Library. It moved to the newly constructed Wilson Library in 1968. In March 2018, the Bell moved again to its current location in the university's Elmer L. Andersen Library building. Th
Associates of the James Ford Bell Library
was established in 1963 as friends group that contributes to the support of the library and sponsors events and publications. The library has a variety of publications and since 1964 has sponsored an annual public lecture series: the James Ford Bell Lecture.

Curators

* Dr. John "Jack" Parker, 1953-1991 * Dr. Carol Urness, 1991-2001 * Dr. Brian Fryckenberg, 2003 * Dr. Marguerite Ragnow, 2005–present

References

* ''The James Ford Bell Library: An annotated catalog of original source materials relating to the history of European expansion, 1400-1800'' Minneapolis, Minn.: James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota, 1994. * ''James Ford Bell and his books: the nucleus of a library''. Minneapolis, Minn. : Associates of the James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota, 1993. * ''A book for Jack: words to, by and about John Parker, curator of the James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota'', edited by Carol Urness. Minneapolis/St. Paul: Associates of the James Ford Bell Library, 1991. * ''The world for a marketplace : episodes in the history of European expansion : commemorating the 25th anniversary of the James Ford Bell Library'', by John Parker. Minneapolis: Associates of the James Ford Bell Library, 1978. * ''The Manifest : a newsletter to the Associates of the James Ford Bell Library'', Wilson Library, University of Minnesota. * ''The merchant explorer: a commentary on selected recent acquisitions''. 1961-

External links

James Ford Bell Library
{{authority control 1953 establishments in Minnesota Libraries established in 1953 Libraries in Minnesota Research libraries in the United States Special collections libraries in the United States University and college academic libraries in the United States University of Minnesota